1966 Chris Farlowe: Out Of Time

A Jagger/Richards composition, 'Out Of Time' is a put down of a former lover who wants to get back together. In other words, a song tailor made for Jagger's sneer. "You're obsolete my baby, my poor old-fashioned baby" - Jagger's kiss off is a face to face dismissal, no doubt delivered from the cocksure vantage point of already having another girl on his arm (I can just picture her in thigh boots and miniskirt, smirking along at her would be rival's misery). Cruel yes, but no worse than the cruelty that goes on in broke down relationships every minute of the day.

Farlowe's version, however, locates the point where salt meets wound and grinds it in with a jackboot. There's a critique in his interpretation that's a far more devastating, structural demolition job on the hapless girl than Mick's "now go away" flippancy. Whereas Jagger's ex left it too late to pick up where they left off, Farlowe's angle is to brand her obsolete not just in time, but from life altogether and then to let the world know that he's doing it.

There's an almost jovial tone to his delivery, a sense that he can't wait to get back to that chorus (listen to his rolling "Wellllllll"s that usher it in) to begin another round of destruction of her looks, hair, dress sense, personality, even her very existence - Farlowe's mocking vocal weighs them all in the scales and finds them wanting, a verdict presented with ever increasing glee at delivering put downs dripping with spite whilst what sound like his drunken wingmen chip in on backing vocals with sarcastic jibes of their own ("clever girl"). The best she can do in Farlowe's eyes is find a dark cave to lie down and die in; yes, it sounds that nasty.

And away from the vocal, there's a certain perversion in the sombre string arrangement (in place of the spare, marimba led version the Stones cut for their 'Aftermath' album) that casts 'Out Of Time' as a heavyweight pseudo soul number, a touch that puts a horseshoe into the boxing glove to bring added pain. For me, whenever 'Out Of Time' starts up, I always remember Dusty's pleading on 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' and I hear this as a savage response to her open vulnerability. And it always makes me feel guilty for liking Farlowe's song half as much as I do.*


*And yet it could have been worse still - the version of 'Out Of Time' that features on the 'Tonite Let's All Make Love In London' soundtrack has bleed over from an interview with a young girl on a swing. Her actual piece in the film ends with her extolling the virtues of sixties London - "You're free to do whatever you want and no one cares", yet as the introduction to 'Out Of Time' begins in its own right, the "no one cares" is repeated three times, each quieter than the last until Farlowe opens his mouth to bury it. For me, it adds a level of poignancy to the song that ramps up the prosecution's evidence as to just what a bastard Farlowe is being.